After an up-and-down 2021 season, Auburn football is projected to face off with a dangerous ACC foe in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl this December.
Auburn football locked in bowl eligibility at the end of October with a victory over Ole Miss but three losses over the next three weeks limited their bowl options.
With the regular season now over after a dramatic 4OT loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl, the Tigers have a better view of what their bowl destination is likely to be.
According to Brett McMurphy, Auburn will head to the Gator Bowl.
Assuming the Tigers get the Gator Bowl slot, they will face off with an ACC foe.
Wake Forest is McMurphy’s pick. If the Demon Deacons end up winning the ACC Championship Game vs. Pitt, they will likely see a different foe.
The Tigers and Demon Deacons have faced off eight times with Auburn holding the 6-2 edge. However, it has been a long time since the programs have met. Their last game was in 1982 when the Tigers won 28-10.
They have only played once outside of Alabama.
Meeting Wake Forest this season means going against a team led by quarterback Sam Hartman. The Demon Deacons have averaged more than 40 points per game but they’ve also given up more than 30. Any game they play in this bowl season could end up being a wild one.
Whether he has to take on Wake Forest in the Gator Bowl or someone else in another game, Bryan Harsin will want to cap his first season in charge with a bowl victory. He won the Fiesta Bowl in his first season leading Boise State and had a 3-2 record in bowl games with the Broncos.
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The Houston Cougars and Auburn Tigers will face off in the 2021 TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl, per Brett McMurphy. The game will take place at the Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. Kickoff is currently scheduled for 12:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, December 28th. The game will air on ESPN and will be available via live stream at WatchESPN.
The Coogs bookended their season with losses, but still had a terrific 2021 campaign under Dana Holgorsen. Quarterback Clayton Tune threw for 3,263 yards and 28 touchdowns, but the defense is where this team really made a difference. They forced 22 turnovers and made enough of a difference to get to the AAC Championship Game. While they fell to Cincinnati on the last day of the season, the future is bright on Scott and Holman.
Even though this hasn’t exactly been the best start for head coach Bryan Harsin in Year 1, Auburn had plenty of fight and had chances to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl. The Tigers had lost three consecutive games heading into the regular season finale, so we’ll see which Auburn team shows up to the bowl game. The Tigers lost starting quarterback Bo Nix to a season-ending ankle injury, and LSU Tigers transfer TJ Finley filled in the past two games.
Auburn is heading to The Magic City. The Tigers accepted a bid on Sunday to play Houston in the Birmingham Bowl from Protective Stadium on Dec. 28, 2021.
This is the ninth consecutive season that Auburn has gone to a bowl game and will be the second appearance in the Birmingham Bowl in program history. The Tigers previously defeated Memphis 31-10 in the 2015 Birmingham Bowl.
“Auburn football has a long history of playing in Birmingham, and now we have a chance to continue that against a nationally ranked Houston team that has won 11 games this year," Harsin said.
Auburn, which finished at 6-6 on the season, will take on Houston, which finished with an 11-2 record. The Cougars lost to No. 4 Cincinnati in the American Championship on Saturday 35-20.
"Our mindset is to end the season with a win as we build momentum for 2022, while allowing our guys to enjoy a great bowl experience,” Harsin said. “This game is an opportunity for a number of our players to play close to home and many of our fans to easily attend after Christmas. We want the Auburn Family to turn the new Protective Stadium in Birmingham orange and blue, creating a home field advantage on game day.”
Bryan Harsin has now led his teams to a bowl game in each of his nine seasons as a head coach, excluding the 2020 season where Boise State only played seven games.
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In his lone season as head coach at Arkansas State in 2013, the Red Wolves played in the GoDaddy Bowl against Ball State. Harsin did not coach in that game, as he had already accepted the same position at his alma mater, Boise State.
While at Boise State, Harsin led the Broncos to a bowl berth in each of his seven seasons except for 2020. It should be noted that the 2018 First Responders Bowl, where Boise State was set to face Boston College, was cancelled.
Overall, Harsin has posted a 3-2 record in five bowl games he's coached.
This will mark the seventh time that the two schools will play each other. The Tigers lead the series 5-1 and won the most recent matchup 7-0 in 1973.
Auburn will take on Houston from Protective Stadium in Birmingham at 11 a.m. CST on Dec. 28, 2021. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
“We look forward to competing in the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl and the opportunity to send our seniors off on a positive note as we build for the future,” Auburn Director of Athletics Allen Greene said. “We invite the Auburn Family to support the Tigers December 28 in the first postseason game at state-of-the-art Protective Stadium.”
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AUBURN — Bryan Harsin's first season as Auburn football coach will end with a trip to the Birmingham Bowl at 11 a.m. CT Dec. 28 at Protective Stadium in Birmingham.
Auburn (6-6) will face No. 21 Houston (11-2) on ESPN. The two programs have not met since 1973, but Auburn leads the all-time series 5-1. Auburn's last bowl game win against a ranked opponent was the 2010 national championship win against Oregon.
This will be the 46th bowl game in Auburn program history and the second Birmingham Bowl appearance in the game's 15-year history. The Tigers are 24-19-2 in bowl games, including a 31-10 win against Memphis in the 2015 Birmingham Bowl.
At the time, the game was played at historic Legion Field, where Auburn also played the annual Iron Bowl rivalry game against Alabama for decades. But this will be the first edition of the game played at Protective Stadium, the new UAB home venue that opened Oct. 2 with UAB's 36-12 loss to Liberty.
Last week, Protective Stadium hosted the AHSAA Super 7 state high school championship games.
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"Auburn football has a long history of playing in Birmingham, and now we have a chance to continue that against a nationally-ranked Houston team that has won 11 games this year," Harsin said in a release from the school. "Our mindset is to end the season with a win as we build momentum for 2022, while allowing our guys to enjoy a great bowl experience. This game is an opportunity for a number of our players to play close to home and many of our fans to easily attend after Christmas."
The Birmingham Bowl is part of the lowest tier of SEC bowl affiliations, meaning that Auburn was not selected by the pool of six mid-tier games considered to have equal pedigree. A record 13 SEC teams are bowl-eligible this season, including five 6-6 teams.
Last season's Birmingham Bowl was canceled due to a lack of available teams as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the college football postseason. The Legion Field era of the game came to an end with Cincinnati's 38-6 win against Boston College to end the 2019 season. Cincinnati will play Alabama in the College Football Playoff this season.
Auburn is the first SEC team to play in the Birmingham Bowl since 2016, when South Carolina lost to South Florida in overtime. The SEC is 4-3 in the game's short history, and Auburn joins South Carolina as the only league schools to appear in the game twice. Kentucky, Ole Miss, Florida and Vanderbilt have all played in it.
Houston is a compelling opponent that was undefeated in the AAC until losing the conference championship game 35-20 to No. 4 Cincinnati on Saturday. The Cougars are coached by Dana Holgorsen, who was head coach at West Virginia from 2011-18. Their only other loss this season was to Texas Tech in the season opener. They rank 14th in the country in scoring offense with 37.3 points per game.
The Tigers are trying to snap a four-game losing streak, which included three straight blown double-digit leads to end the regular season. They are in the process of hiring their own new offensive coordinator after Mike Bobo's one-year tenure ended last week.